Business 1938: Textiles: Patent to Du Pont

TEXTILES No. 2,130,948

There are only a few major raw materials of which the U. S. does not have its own supplies. Such are rubber and tin. Such also is silk. Last week, however, the U. S. awarded Patent No. 2,130,948 to the late W. H. Carothers, former chemist for E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. The apparel trade, which had for some time heard rumors of the new Du Pont product under the name of Fibre 66, believed it might prove the first practical process for manufacturing synthetic silk entirely from chemicals.